Meaning & use
preferential treatment
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountabledisapproving
Treatment that gives one person or group an advantage over others, often in a way that seems unfair.
Grammar: No plural and no article: she received preferential treatment.
Patterns
- give someone preferential treatment
- receive preferential treatment
Some staff complained that the manager's friends received preferential treatment.
The club denied giving preferential treatment to its famous members.
Customers who pay extra get preferential treatment at the airport.
noununcountablelegal
Special treatment given to someone for a fair or approved reason, such as to help a group that has been disadvantaged.
Grammar: Often used in policy or legal contexts.
Patterns
- preferential treatment for someone
The scheme offers preferential treatment to small local suppliers.
Some countries give preferential treatment to trading partners in their own region.
The law forbids preferential treatment on the basis of age.
Common combinations
- receive preferential treatment
- He felt guilty about receiving preferential treatment.
- give preferential treatment
- The landlord was accused of giving preferential treatment to certain tenants.
- demand preferential treatment
- She never demanded preferential treatment because of her title.
- unfair preferential treatment
- Unfair preferential treatment damaged morale at the firm.
- preferential treatment for
- There is no preferential treatment for family members.
Synonyms and how they differ
- favoritism
- Favoritism always sounds unfair and personal, while preferential treatment can sometimes be justified by a rule.
- special treatment
- Special treatment is the everyday phrase and is less formal, while preferential treatment sounds more official.
- privilege
- A privilege is an advantage that someone holds, while preferential treatment is the act of giving that advantage.
- bias
- Bias is a leaning in attitude, often unconscious, while preferential treatment is the actual unequal handling.
Opposites
Word family
- prefer verb
- to like one thing more than another
- preference noun
- a stronger liking for one option
- preferential adjective
- giving an advantage to certain people
- preferentially adverb
- in a way that favors some over others
- treat verb
- to behave toward someone in a certain way
Commonly confused: preferential treatment or preferable?
preferential treatment vs preferable
Preferable means better or more suitable, while preferential describes giving some people an advantage.
Practice
The employees were upset because the owner's nephew was getting ___ over everyone else.
Choose one answer.
Preferential treatment is the set phrase for giving an advantage to a favored person. Preferable treatment is tempting but means treatment that is better, not favoritism.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “preferential treatment”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.